NCLG

Latin and Classics in a Global Curriculum

Article by Conrad Barrett, California State University, Long Beach 

Published in the summer 1991 issue of the NCLG's newsletter Prospects

INTRODUCTION

Breadth of mind and a sense of international tolerance have been developed for centuries in young people living in the Americas and Europe by their study of Latin and Classics. Only in the last century or so has interest in modern nations developed into disciplines and become a valuable part of the curriculum of schools and colleges. The long history of classical education may have caused many people to take its results for granted. Devaluing something that is old can easily happen, especially in a country where many believe that something new under the sun will turn up almost daily and where novelties often gain media attention. In this time of reevaluation of all subjects taught in our schools, the Latin-Classics curriculum, too, must be reconsidered. In this discussion we will take a look at two traditional and inseparable subjects, Latin and Classics, as a curricular element in modern global education, the term "Classics" meaning ancient Greek and Roman culture.

GLOBAL EDUCATION IN THE ROMAN WORLD

Before looking at what it is today in the study of  Greece and Rome that fosters a broadness of outlook, an international focus, and an attitude of tolerance, we should notice that for the ancient Romans the study of Greek civilization provided a global education. For it was an earlier Greek culture which for six or more centuries provided the Roman mind with other notions of government, social relations and family life, religion, science and navigation, art and literature, ethics and education. A good number of the new ideas found a place in Roman practice. After young men in Roman schools had learned the Greek language well enough to converse in it and had read a good amount of Greek writing in their classes, they usually sailed off to Athens, Rhodes, or another Greek city to take their college work under Greek professors who knew no Latin. In the language of the culture the young men studied natural science, logic, mathematics, astronomy, literature and public speaking. Literature expanded their intellects and imaginations, enriched their thoughts and vocabulary, and developed their speaking and writing style, all with a view to public life. Also, more specialized courses in public speaking, called rhetoric, increased their skill in oratory, for back home the young Romans needed to persuade others in the law courts, in the legislature, during elections, in the military and in business and commerce.

While these young people were being educated abroad, they studied the thoughts, customs, and values of the earlier Homeric and Classical periods of Greece and at the same time they encountered every day the non-Roman values and  customs of the local Greek residents and of the immigrants there--people from Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Palestine, Libya, and other places. Many of these diverse immigrants maintained their native ways of dress, their languages, and their religions. To live and function effectively in this new environment, the young Romans had been prepared by their study of Greek culture back in their own country and by contact with foreigners from the Mediterranean basin visiting and living in Italy. Once they were abroad, their outlook was further broadened to help them function in the different cultures of the Mediterranean coast and inland regions. The richness of Greek culture recommended itself and the international status of the Greek language gave it further support as the one for second-language acquisition. For some six centuries the Romans included Greek language and culture in the curriculum of their own schools and sent their young men to the Greek world to complete their education in a center that was usually very cosmopolitan.

EDUCATION IN THE RENAISSANCE

When ancient civilization was rediscovered by Europeans from c. 1400 on, the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome and the Latin language became the basis of their curriculum that both trained and liberated a student's mind. This, in a nutshell, was the Renaissance--the rebirth from antiquity of a culture with a developed educational system and with a body of knowledge that feed the mind from several tyrannies. This recovered heritage introduced the notion of a person as a creature having value in himself and possessing the potential to be cultivated, i.e., to be educated broadly and deeply. As Protagoras said in the 400's B.C., "Man is the measure of all things." Humanism was reborn in the West."

One product of such an education is an individual who has acquired an international perspective along with a sense of history, the latter gained from a study of events and their causes over a thousand year period--from Rome's foundation down to its fall in c. A.D. 400. For this individual has studied Roman customs and institutions as well as some of those of Greece and of the Near East that influenced Rome. For hundreds of years this curriculum has educated the young people of Europe, the Americas, and Australia whether the tongue they spoke was Slavic, Germanic, or Romance. This curriculum has also educated modern generations of Egyptians, Indians, and other nations of Asia and Africa. This classical background combined with the Judeo-Christian heritage was and is the foundation of western culture.

In our time, however, many people have little knowledge of our past, recent or ancient, and are unaware that this body of knowledge and culture exists for their use. Some who know about it have overlooked it or been "political" in the immediate sense and turned their backs to the over-all and long-term value of Latin and Classics in a global curriculum. As we approach the years 1992 and 2000, times when we will look backward and forward, we need to ask if we are providing our young with the best possible education for their future personal, civic, and professional roles in life.

PREPARATION FOR GLOBAL LANGUAGES

Such varied and rich rewards await a student in a Latin-Classics course that in this discussion we will divide the topic and focus first on the benefits gained from learning the language and next on the content of readings in the language, of supplementary readings in English, and of lecture and discussion.

Learning the Latin language itself provides a variety of useful results. Let us consider the benefits gained from the study of Latin that prepare young people for global living, before we look at those that serve as a basis of civic and career success here at home.

The study of the Latin tongue equips a person with concepts and distinctions in language which make the learning of other languages much easier than for a person who has not been trained in this way. A unique training is provided in this classroom. For there is enough similarity to English in Latin's alphabet, vocabulary, and notion of a sentence for a person beginning the language not to feel he is in a wholly alien situation. Americans' fear of language study is no secret. On the other hand, there are clear and substantial differences from English which expand a student's notion of possibilities in what makes up a language.

To begin with, there are several new sounds which are learned in pronouncing the familiar letters: ancient Latin "c" is always our "k" sound and its "v" is always our "w" sound. Familiar looking words in Latin, though close in general meaning, often express a different shade of meaning than their English derivatives do: "studere" means "to be eager" or "to be busy with" and this general meaning only some of the time applies to books, and then the word means "to study." In the same way the Latin "miser" is more frequently translated "unhappy" than "miserable." The study of derivatives always increases spelling skills.

Then there are words which are quite unfamiliar looking: "caupona" is an "inn," while "fessus" means "tired," and "oppidum" is the word for "town." The meaning is familiar, but it has a different looking carrier in Latin. There is more we could say about Latin words alone as an educational tool, but the point has been illustrated.

The sentence, too, is similar to a point. In both languages it has a subject and a predicate, but in Latin the word order of a sentence differs from that in English. The subject and predicate are there, but their words are arranged differently. One example will be explained briefly.

English: The nice children are playing in the small yard.

Latin: Children nice in small yard playingare.

Latin has no word for "a," "an," or "the." Students learn to supply them in a translation so that their English is standard. The modifier "nice" follows its noun "children" in Latin, but must be reversed in English. The verb appears after the subject in English, but Latin quite frequently places it at the end. So, students must reorganize the Latin word order to produce an acceptable English translation. Also, the Latin verb here is one word with its last three letters representing "nt" of the actual Latin verb, "ludent," which means "they are." (Children are a "they" just as a yard is an "it.") Although there is no time to discuss it, the following example may interest the reader in its layout:

English: The woman saw the workers who were walking to the farm.

Latin: Woman workers who to farm walkingwere saw.

Students learn to understand a sentence in Latin, using three clues. First here is the meaning of the words. Then, as has been suggested, there are patterns into which the parts of a Latin sentence tend to fall. The third clue is that the last letter or two of a Latin noun indicates whether it is the subject, object, or something else of its sentence. For example, the noun for tree is "arbor" when it is the subject of a sentence. Spelled "arborem" it is usually the object of the verb or of a preposition. When it is spelled "arboris," it is usually modifying a noun and means "of a tree." 

In these ways and others a very direct preparation is provided by Latin-study for dealing with the languages of some 1 billion 800 million people in the world today, not including the 440 million who use English. For their languages belong to the group which Latin represents at an early stage. This group of world languages is called Indo-European. Its users are found on the map roughly in an east-to-west line drawn from India to Ireland to the Americas to Australia. The major subgroups of Indo-European are Germanic, Italic (Romance), Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian. They constitute the languages spoken by half of the people who make up the cultures and economies of today's world.

For learning these languages, Latin-study provides a solid foundation and a greater contrast than any other language in the schools.

A strong foundation is acquired from Latin-study for learning also no-related modern languages. For a Latin student's mind has become flexible in working with non-English sentence structures and vocabulary to such a point that it is open to further kinds of differences from English. Arabic is written from right to left, as is Hebrew; both have "alphabets" that have a different appearance and operate on a principle different than ours. Chinese symbols evolved from pictures and combinations of them, as did Egyptian hieroglyphs. Chinese, a language of over 100 million users, calls for several tonal variations of the same sound in order to indicate several different "words." Such different linguistic elements await a student who will one day learn Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malay-Indonesian, or one of the many languages of Africa's 795 million people.

For anyone in the western world, the study of Latin is clearly the optimum preparation for learning also languages of other world groups represented here by those mentioned. This point, however, many need to be rediscovered by some who are responsible for getting educational results that will put the nation into a strong international economic position.

The demands made upon a student by Latin, as it equips him with skills for acquiring a third language, also hone and strengthen several fundamental English skills. Since these benefits have often been discussed in journals, only a few words will be said about this here. The study of Latin words develops an awareness of words in English which no other language does, for some two-thirds of our dictionary entries are words derived from Latin, including over 90% of words of three or more syllables. Similarity between so many words leads one to compare meanings and thus refine his knowledge of English vocabulary. Second, the difference in word order and the role of noun-endings compel close reading to get the thought, and then engage common sense and the imagination to produce an expression of the meaning in standard English.

The more a student works with the language and learns to think in it, the more readily he can read and translate it. As a result, a youngster's capacities in reading, writing, and speaking English increase. The value of these skills in future education and in professional life needs no comment, especially at a time when business and government bemoan the weak verbal skills of graduates from U.S. high schools and colleges and must look abroad to import solidly educated people.

The other result of Latin-study is that described in the preceding. And that is: a student's mind has learned to operate with a language quite different from English and is, therefore, strengthened and stretched for more readily acquiring a third and possibly a fourth language. Right now this ability is needed in many graduates if they are going to have successful business, engineering, educational, legal, or governmental careers in the global arena.

Language study and Graeco-Roman culture have been separated here for convenience of discussion, but they are not separated in the Latin-Classics classroom. The culture is discussed as the language is being explained and read, with some topics requiring comment and supplementary readings in English. Culture and language are integrated because they are inseparable. It is a broad but unified curriculum, as presented both in the newer programs such as the Cambridge Latin Course, Lingua Latina, and Ecce Romani and in some older ones such as Our Latin Heritage, Using Latin, and Latin for Americans.

COMPARATIVE CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS

A youngster who learns about the world of Rome becomes aware of a pre-industrial people, another form of family life, some unusual customs, and several shockingly different social institutions.

THE ROMAN FAMILY

The topic of the Roman family often starts serious discussion. Young people ask why there were three kinds of recognized and essentially legalized forms of marriage. Girls in a class are quick to sympathize with the newer forms of Roman marriage that provided ways for a woman to retain property after she was married. Boys and girls find it interesting that a child was not recognized or accepted into a family until its father ceremoniously lifted it from the ground and declared it his own. The fact that most Roman girls were educated in the home stirs discussion, especially because boys were almost always sent out to a school each day.

Roman family life indeed represents a youngster with some things to think about. The legal powers of a Roman father, though some were seldom used, stimulate dialogue that leads to clarification of the premises of our customs and to a more liberal attitude toward the customs of others. As indicated, if a child were not wanted the father could rule not to accept it. His legal power, again seldom used, allowed him to disown his child, to sell it into slavery, arrange its marriage or compel it to divorce, and, finally, but not frequently done, execute it. It is no surprise that these different customs lead to lively discussion in a Latin class. Without doubt these youngsters acquire a broader outlook for dealing with other peoples in the world.

The social position of a Roman woman, although superior to that of an ancient Greek woman, contrasts so strongly with a woman's today, that the study of it brings students to a greater awareness of the situation in our country and to a greater readiness to deal with women's situations in macho and other different cultures. For youngsters react strongly when they learn that, although in her home a Roman wife, a matrona, directed the work of the slave-servants, oversaw the activities of her children and especially her daughters' education, and managed the household budget, she was allowed to do little else. Clearly the Roman notion was that her major purpose was to bear children and raise them and to help her husband in his enterprises. The marriage age of Roman women, usually between 14 and 18, reflects this. So, she stayed at home most of the time, as a girl and then as a woman, for the most part having only a private life. Also, Roman women were by law under a man's protection, be it father, husband, or brother. Not only was her marriage arranged by a man in the family, but, should she divorce, her children remained with their father.

It is true that when an upper class Roman woman went to certain public gatherings, plays or gladiatorial shows, she had a seat in a section reserved for women of her station. Yet she did not have a vote in the political arena. As we saw, Roman women were educated to a limited degree and they are hardly ever heard of participating in discussions with men and giving their views. Still we hear of close husband-wife relationships which resemble some we consider to be quite modern.

In addition, the Roman word "familia" included a wholly different element: slaves. Slaves worked in households, in the fields, in factories, and in government agencies. Roman slavery comes as a shock to students. It is such a shock that they want to make the translation of the Latin word "servus" sound less harsh than what it means, "slave." By law a slave belonged to an owner as property. Yet our students are inclined to use the euphemism "servant" in translating the word "servus." In time they learn that history cannot be dreamed up and rewritten or be legislated away, any more than customs of nations today can be made like ours "to make them right" or ours made like theirs in the same spirit. Students jump into the discussion of the essential meaning of the concept of slavery, often suggesting de facto forms of it in the modern world.

Perhaps no topic in the Latin-Classics curriculum draws so upon the sympathy of students and so humanizes them as does the topic of slavery. Hearing about large metal collars worn by once escaped slaves or an "F" branded on their foreheads to mark the one-time Fugitive, about slave labor in the silver mines of Spain with a high mortality rate, and about public auctions of slaves in Rome and other large Mediterranean centers--hearing about these things engages the minds and moves the hearts of the least attentive youngsters. Aware of this chapter in man's history, students are more able to find it credible that many people live in a form of servitude today, especially when they hear directly from recent immigrants dramatic reports of political atrocities and economic repression.

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Another thing which the Roman world with its Greek heritage teaches young people is to observe some fundamental aspects of political life and governmental structure. I stress "fundamental" because, although K-12 are not the years mother nature would have humans dwell on politics and government, U.S. schools, nevertheless, pound youngsters with a plethora of studies in American history and civics. More palatable lessons about the ways human beings organize and control power in their society are available in more interesting and more economic form in the Latin-Classics classroom, especially in abbreviated or full-length ancient biographies of military and political leaders. Some of these are written in easier Latin for reading in the second and third semesters. Also, on account of its remoteness in time, the study of the Roman experience allows for more objective thinking, since a student is not predisposed by family or other loyalty to the  politics of Caesar or Cicero, as a person might be to those of John Adams or Andrew Jackson, Herbert Hoover or Franklin Roosevelt.

A youngster becomes familiar with the evolution of a nation's government in following Rome's progress from the mid 700's B.C. down to its fall, some 1100 years later. Kings ruled in Rome for the first two and one-half centuries. Excesses of the monarchs and their abuses of power led to their expulsion and the establishment of a republic managed mostly by the upper classes. During the next four centuries power in the republic was shared increasingly by more citizens. During the last century of the republic, from the Gracchi brothers down to Julius Caesar and Augustus, open civil war and violence erupted with the result that any future holder of the top political office would gain and hold power only with an army. And so in 21 B.C. when Antony and Cleopatra were defeated, there began a military dictatorship in Rome that lasted, with additional civil wars, until Rome fell in c. A.D. 400. This lesson in changes of political systems of a single famous people over some eleven centuries provides young people with an historical perspective which they can apply to the different systems of government in nations today, e.g., those of the U.S.S.R., China, Sweden, India, and Saudi Arabia.

What is more, when youngsters learn how the façade of the Roman republic was kept up during the centuries of the military dictatorship, they acquire a sophistication that helps them perceive the realities of the seats of power as they come to see through the propaganda of the ruling powers. Once again, the study of modern nations, including our own as mentioned, usually stirs prejudices and preferences which preclude the detachment necessary to cultivate an understanding of the ways man approaches the issue of power and the disposition of it in some form of government.

A few more related features of Roman society during a good part of its 1100 year history are worth mention. The underlying issue here is what amounts to power. For several centuries upper-class Roman citizens, the patricians, were stopped by law from marrying citizens of lower rank, the plebeians. They might marry but there was a loss of position, of power. What is more, a citizen was born into one of these ranks; only adoption of a special senatorial decree could raise a person into the upper classes. Again, the laws of the Roman state are what mandated the position of--power of--slaves, females, and dependent males. With little or no prompting from a teacher, comparisons of Roman laws and practices are easily made with cultures in Asia, Africa, and South America.

RELIGION AND ETHICS

Perhaps as much or more perspective and tolerance are gained from the study of the religions of Rome. Saying the "Pledge of Allegiance" to the flag and singing the "Star Spangled Banner" are about as close as we come to the state religion of Rome. A person had no spiritual experience, nor was it expected. In some there was surely a surge of patriotism, but this feeling is not a personal spiritual one. Thus, the temples of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus were national shrines. For the purpose of these gods was to maintain the well being of the state, which the Romans referred to as Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR). Failure to understand that recognition of Jupiter was a recognition of political power caused suffering for many Jews and Christians. 

In addition, there was a variety of gods whom many Romans, not to mention their subject peoples, recognized and worshipped in their personal religion. An individual might worship a god or goddess of his choice, be it Mithras from Persia, Demeter from Greece, Isis from Egypt, Cybele from Anatolia, or Bacchus from Greece. At the same time he respected the other gods, sometimes worshipping several. By receiving instruction in the religion chosen, by participating in the ritual, and by undergoing initiation a person was taking action to gain a combination of several things--a promise of prosperity, a happy afterlife, a sense of belonging to the other worshippers, and a sense of self-renewal with perhaps a deeper knowledge of himself. Such religions, e.g., Christianity and Isism, were called "mystery" religions because their members kept "secret" some of their teachings and ceremonies. Familiarity with these ancient religions in the world of Rome has for centuries made young  Europeans and Americans quite cosmopolitan in their outlook on matters of religion--the essence of a global disposition.

*** Roman ethics, however, to the surprise of many, are not closely linked with personal religion. Their notions of behavior are connected in part with state religion which we have seen concerns itself with the good of the state, the political unit. And so patriotism fostered a sense of duty in war and in peace when there were positions in the military and government which necessity and custom called upon Romans to fill. Ethical principals were derived also from the fundamentals of philosophic systems, especially from stoicism which was quite popular among the educated people of Greece and Rome for several hundred years. Stoic teachings broaden the mind of a youngster and prepare him to handle more easily his first encounters with non-Judeo-Christian world concepts and values.  Stoic principles and guidelines are based upon nature: one is called upon to see how the physical world is composed and how it functions, i.e., to discover the laws of nature. This knowledge supplies the principles of the stoic guidelines for natural behavior. 

Not only a youngster by an adult in our modern scientific society is forced by stoic physics to sit back and ask himself how and why millions of people have viewed the physical world as made up of four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Thus, an old notion of the physical universe is reexamined. The fact is that there are still millions of people today whose analyses of the physical world are closer to the stoic view than to the one which our natural science offers us.

Now the ethics of stoics, though based upon pre-modern science, turn out to be quite acceptable to most people in the western world today. To achieve the harmonious life which nature intended for man to have, the stoics taught that man needs to cultivate himself with the aim of behaving as follows: that he depend upon his own brain, and not use ignorance as an excuse; that he not fear the imagined, yet recognize and face real dangers in life; that he be just to others and require justice from them; and that he assume the regulation over and direction of his own life. Few Americans or Canadians in the Judeo-Christian community would argue over these being desirable virtues.

What is more important for our purpose here is that the overall stoic view of nature and the world offers our youngsters a world-view that makes them more accepting of several widespread religious-philosophic outlooks in today's world. The idea of the stoics which well prepares youngsters to understand and to interact with Buddhists and Hindus is the doctrine that the elements of earth, air, fire, and water evolved from a single element, often called "divine" by the stoics. They had many names for it, but agreed on the concept that it was both the material source and the directing principle. It was a oneness, whether it was called ether, logos, pneuma, soul of the world, law of nature, or god. Their beginning of the universe was from a single entity. Thus, all creation can be viewed as an evolved unity. Their pneuma or god was not outside the world but in it and of it--inseparable.

This principle needs to be understood by anyone who would come to understand the basic thinking of a billion dwellers of the earth (690 milion Hindus plus 311 million Buddhists), whether a person wishes to live among them, to do business with them, or to deal with them about political matters. And of no less importance, familiarity with the stoic notion of the unified, organic nature of the cosmos also helps a person to understand the message of environmentalists all over the world.

GEOGRAPHY

Many readers are aware of the gain in geographic knowledge which students receive from several semesters in a Latin-Classics course. So, although ignorance of the world geography today is of widespread concern, let us discuss only a few aspects of this subject here.

Familiarity with the map of the Roman Empire paves the way for the study of three continents--Europe, Asia, and Africa. For Roman rule existed for centuries in far-off Britain, across north Africa, in the nations of the regions we refer to as the Holy Land and Turkey, and in the southern parts of today's Germanic and Slavic Europe, as well as the Romance-language countries. Rome's trade reached eastward to India, the center of Asia. True, from our viewpoint the Romans' knowledge of the geography of these continents was limited, but this limitation turns into a virtue in the classroom because the necessity of comparing ancient maps with those of today provides productive discussions, projects, and papers for students in many grades. Other topics arise, such as the filling in of river deltas and bays and the influence of weather changes on agriculture, military operations, and sea-faring.

Map study teaches another kind of lesson. In tracing the growth of Rome, step by step, from a town on the Tiber River in central Italy to its expansion over all of Italy and later to its greatest dominion in the A.D. 100's, a student develops a knowledge of political, economic, military, and other cultural factors at work.

Ancient maps include, as well, the lands of neighbors, traders, and enemies of Rome whose cultures often stood in contrast. The northern Germans continued to threaten when the Romans crossed the Rhine, for these tough people were never subdued by Roman troops. East of Turkey the Parthians remained a threat to legions which ventured too far in their direction. Traders went southward across the Suez area to take ships to the Orient. Merchant ships connected the cultures and the economies of coastal towns on the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Greek and Roman ships traveled far up the Nile in search of gold, exotic spices, and animals in upper Egypt and the Sudan.

Using excellent textbook and wall maps, teachers are able to point out the movements of cultures as well as trace the routes of mythic voyages. The arts, wares, ideas, and religions of Greece, Egypt, the nations at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, the peoples of Asia Minor (Turkey today), and those on the Black Sea found their way to Rome. From outlying regions also came some of the writers and leaders of Rome. In the same way the spread of Graeco-Roman culture is easily traced on maps. In five nations of Europe as well as in much of the New World what Latin itself evolved into is the modern Romance languages with their 723 million speakers. Roman town planning, engineering, and architecture are seen in ruins, in the layout of modern cities, and in roads still in use. Roman law provided the basis of the legal codes of a number of nations. The map reveals far more than the advance of Rome's armies. It reveals East meeting West, the Romans reaching to the north and to the south, and a great mingling of customs, languages, and nationalities.

CONCLUSION

Observers might ask what it is that motivates Latin teachers and students of Latin, often with the help of parents, to the degree that they throw colorful banquets, hold exacting competitions, and sometimes fight to maintain a Latin-Classics program in a school. Observers might ask why Latin enrollments have been growing in the schools steadily since 1970. An immediate answer is that Latin taken for three years raises SAT scores significantly. This is common knowledge. In the present discussion the reasons for this result of Latin-Classics study have been gone into. It was revealed that the Romans, too, had a global education through the use of the language, culture, and knowledge of Greece. The Renaissance and periods up until quite recently also used the rich, multi-faceted tradition of Graeco-Roman culture to prepare young people for dealing with the great world. It is interesting to notice that among the parents who seek a Latin-Classics education in the schools there are more and more people of Asian descent who state simply that they want their children to know the roots of their new culture.

We live in a time when the face of our country is changing. It now reflects most peoples and nations of the world today. Recent immigrants and Americans who have been here for generations all need a solid preparation in school so they can succeed in a world requiring academic sharpness and a global outlook.

The preparation that a Latin-Classics education provides our young people for global living has been the emphasis of this discussion. Whether a young person will be dealing with people from Nigeria, Viet Nam, Turkey, or Brazil, coming from a Latin-Classics background he will approach the culture with tolerance and expectation of differences in family life, government, religion, dress, and personal appearance. If he learns his lessons well in the automatically interdisciplinary classical curriculum, like the Romans he will seldom take notice of race and be judgmental of customs. Several ancient writers, including Caesar, Ovid, and Plutarch were curious about the ways and customs of foreigners, and so they wrote about them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. Discussion of these matters: Albert R Baca, California State University, Northridge; Virginia M. Barrett, National Committee for Latin and Greek; Douglas Domingo-Foraste and Pamela Russell, CSU Long Beach; Claude Duval, CSU Sacramento; Maurice Harari, Dean of the Center for International Education, CSU Long Beach.

2. Related readings:
Allman, William F. "The Mother Tongue" U.S. News and World Report, pp 60-70, November 5, 1990.

Burns, Mary Ann T. and Joseph F. O'Connor. The Classics in American Schools: Teaching the Ancient World. Scholars Press, Atlanta, 1987.

Encyclopedia Americana. Articles on nations, religions, and languages.

Gascoyne, Richard. "Latin in the Middle Schools," Prima. American Classical League, Ohio. Fall 1989 (This is the journal of the Elementary Teachers of Classics.)

Latin for Communication. New York State Education Department. Albany, 1986.

Pound, Ezra. The ABC of Reading. Yale University Press. New Haven, 1934.

Shelton, JoAnn. As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History. Oxford University Press, NY, 1988.

Watts, Alan W. "Western Mythology: Its Dissolution and Transformation," Myths, Dreams, and Religion, edited by Joseph Cambell. E. P. Dutton. New York, 1970, pp 9-25.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts. World Almanac, NY, 1991.

Wright, Robert. "Quest for the Mother Tongue." Atlantic, April 1991, pp 39-68.

3. Questions may be sent to the author at the Department of Comparative Literature and Classics, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840.

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